Page 20 of Never Fall Again
“Yeah. He likes taking care of them too.” Mo stood. “I’m off to my own fun day filled with spreadsheets and numbers. Y’all have fun fighting crime and all that stuff.”
Seven
Eliza woke up moments after Mo disappeared, and Landry went back inside the house to help her get going for the day. Thirty minutes later, she knocked on Cal’s door to let him know that she and Eliza were headed to The Haven.
Cal spent the rest of the morning clearing his email inbox and planning his schedule for the coming week. At 12:30, he and Maisy walked to his truck.
Mo met him in the carport and handed him a stack of papers.
“What’s this?” Cal scanned the documents. “Mo!”
“You weren’t sure. I checked. It took five minutes. And now you know.” Mo shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’re welcome.” He walked back to his house and went inside.
Should he thank him? Or strangle him? Cal climbed into his truck and studied the pages. One page was a copy of Landry’s wedding license to a Dylan Flores. There was also a copy of a wedding write-up that had been published in an Arizona paper. Cal studied the photo. Landry had been a beautiful bride.
The second page was a copy of Dylan Flores’s death certificate. Based on the date, he died a few weeks before Landry moved to Gossamer Falls. There were copies of two other newspaper clippings. One detailed the fatal accident that took Dylan Flores’s life.The other was his obituary, which listed Landry and Eliza as his “beloved wife and daughter.”
A photo of the accident explained why Landry had such a negative reaction to the scene last night. The black-and-white image showed the presence of numerous emergency vehicles.
The photo used for Dylan Flores’s obituary gave Cal pause. He’d been a decent-looking guy. Fit. In his thirties at the time of his death. Maybe he was reading more into it than he should, but he didn’t like the look of the man, who had a haughty and calculating expression.
As Landry had pointed out earlier, he and Landry were still practically strangers. But Landry was so warm and vibrant. Cal couldn’t see her being happy with the man in that photo.
He’d tell Mo to quit snooping in other people’s business, but he wasn’t sorry he had the proof in front of him. She’d been married. She was widowed. She moved to Gossamer Falls after her husband’s death. So she wasn’t on the run from him.
But he still had so many questions.
He’d be willing to bet her marriage hadn’t been a happy one. Why had she married the guy in the first place? Not that he had room to cast stones. He’d come close to making a huge marital mistake. He wouldn’t fault anyone who’d been fooled by someone who claimed to love them.
And having a dead husband didn’t eliminate the possibility that she was on the run. Who moves across the country mere weeks after burying their spouse? Maybe if they were returning to their family or their hometown or something. But Landry was a talented artist. Surely she could have found employment closer to home.
Unless she didn’t want to stay close to home.
Cal kept the folded pages in his pocket until he got inside Gray’s office. He released Maisy from her leash. Glenda, the station receptionist, kept treats for Maisy, and Maisy bounded toward her.While Maisy and Glenda did their thing, Cal sent the papers Mo had given him through a shredder beside Glenda’s desk.
He’d seen what he needed to see. If he wanted more information, he’d obtain it from the source.
Gray sat behind his desk, and Cal tapped on the doorframe. “Permission to enter, sir?”
Gray threw a stapler at him. “Shut up and get in here.”
Cal caught the stapler. “I may have you arrested for assaulting a civilian. That stapler was loaded. I could have been pierced through.”
Gray didn’t even smirk. Not good. “Sit down. Where’s Maisy?”
“She’s with Glenda. She’ll be here in a minute.” Cal placed the stapler on Gray’s desk and took a seat. “Who spit in your cornflakes this morning?”
“Whoever left this note.” Gray slid an evidence bag toward him. Inside was what looked like a broken piece of pottery. “We found this at the base of a tree near the entry to Favors.”
Thisisjustthebeginning.
The words were written in red. “The beginning of what?” Cal didn’t expect an answer, and Gray didn’t give him one. “And why leave a note? What could they hope to accomplish?”
Again, Gray didn’t answer.
“Have you shown the note to Bronwyn yet?”
This time, Gray responded. “Yes. Neither she nor Landry have any idea what it could mean.”